Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021 - 24

order a cheeseburger until I was 21 years
old because I was fearful of saying the
word ch- ch- ch- cheeseburger and s-stuttering
on it. I ordered a hamburger with
cheese. But it's not what I really wanted.
And I know, know, know that sounds
crazy, and I know that sounds like, okay,
so you didn't get a cheeseburger. No big
deal. It was a big deal, because my personal
truth was being sacrificed be- bebecause
of preconceived stereotypes.
I never saw myself re- re- represented.
It just wasn't there. I would hear people
tell me, " Marc, you, you, you sounded so
great. I didn't hear you stutter at all on
that last sentence. Great job! " Or, " Marc,
you must be working really hard on your
speech. You're, you're, you're barely sstuttering
at all. Good for you. " Know
what I heard? I heard, " don't be yourself. "
I heard, " if you don't stutter, people will
be proud of you. " I heard, " talk like a normal
person, and you'll be great. " Th- that's
what I heard.
So, for th- those of you that don't know,
stuttering is not caused by being anxious.
Stuttering is not caused because people
who stutter don't know wh- what they
want to say. Stuttering is not caused because
we are fearful of a situation. Those
things that you see, the, the, the outward
re- re- repetitions, sometimes avoidance
behaviors, that you are reacting to the
moment of stuttering, that's what's seen
on a surface level. Th- there's something
that's called the stuttering i- iceberg, seen
here. (Winski shares an image of an iceberg
from NinaGcomedian.com which
reimagines how communities could
respond to stuttering to provide hope,
community, and inclusion, instead of provoking
feelings of guilt, shame, and isolation.)
There is everything that's seen on
the surface level. Again, the repetitions,
the, the, the secondary behaviors, the eye
blinks, all those things. And then under
the surface, there's everything that's really
being felt. All the shame, all the guilt.
Everything that's being br- br- brought on
by others as a reaction to st- st- stuttering.
I'm just here to say, it's, it's okay to be
ssss-someone who stutters. It's, it's, it's
okay to live your own truth, whatever that
might be. And I'm excited to share that.
Growing up, I was given a list of famous
celebrities who stutter. Like, how
cool is that, right? It had Emily Blunt. It
had Bruce Willis. It had Marilyn Monroe.
It had Bill Walton. It had all these great
IF YOU ALL CAME
HERE TO EXPECT AN
INSPIRATIONAL
SPEECH TO MMOTIVATE
YOU
TO KEEP GOING IN
PURSUIT OF YOUR
DREAMS AND BE
THERE, THEN THAT'S
NOT WHAT THIS IS.
THI- THIS IS REAL.
THIS IS TR- TRTRUTH.
I'M AN ACTOR
AND PERFORMER
WHO STUTTERS, AND
IT'S TAKEN ME 30
YEARS TO, TO, TO SAY
THAT EXACT PHRASE.
-WINSKI
24 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | SUMMER 2021
people. But the icon that got me, the icon
that really got me going, was James Earl
Jones. Right? We all know him. The famous
lines, like, " Everything the light
touches is your kingdom. " I don't do a
great James Earl Jones, but that's all we
got.
So, that's what I thought I had to be. I
was being shown these celebrities who I
was told they stuttered, but I never saw
it happen. They were TV, film, theatre, aactors
who stutter, but never openly stuttered
through their art. So, oh, great idea,
Marc. All you have to do to be successful
and a celebrity (laughs) is not show your
stuttering. It's just that easy. And I took
that to, to heart. I sang a lot growing up.
I performed. And people would, would
tell me, " Marc, you're, you're pretty good.
You, you, you should try doing this for a
li- living. "
And I'm like, " Okay. So, what do I do? "
And they said, " Audition for musical
theatre school. They train you in singing,
and acting, and dancing. "
And I said, " Well, wait, wait, wait, wait.
What? "
" Yeah. Singing and acting and
dancing. "
" Uh, no, no, no. Back one. Acting? "
" Yes. "
" I'm not gonna do that. I, I stutter. "
And they would say, " Oh, don't you
know about James Earl Jones? James
Earl Jones stutters too, but when he's
http://www.NinaGcomedian.com
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